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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer buys funeral home, closing just in time for Halloween.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is the new owner of Roller & Hapgood & Tinney, Palo Alto's oldest funeral home, which will close Oct. 31, or Halloween. She paid a stiff price too - $11.2 million.

Marissa Mayer purchased a funeral home.

The property is 1.16-acres in Palo Alto, CA and has been home to the 114-year-old family-owned mortuary since 1951. The mortuary owners have stated that the funeral home will close its doors forever on Halloween. Roller & Hapgood & Tinney was the oldest funeral home in Palo Alto and has a rich history.

The property is currently zoned "planned community" (PC) and allows only a commercial funeral-home to use the site, said Aaron Aknin, Palo Alto's assistant director of planning and community environment.

"Any new development would need to go through a re-zoning process -- Planning and Transportation Commission review and City Council approval required," he said.

The corner lot is, however, across the street from blocks designated for single-family homes. It is also one block away from single-family residences.

Mayer could not be reached for comment regarding the purchase or her plans for the property.

The land deal closed Oct. 7, according to Jim Spangler, president of Mountain View-based Spangler Mortuaries, which purchased Roller & Hapgood & Tinney's business assets. He does not know what Mayer plans to do with the property, he said.

Yahoo CEO owns a home nearby for entertainment purposes.

Mayer's current 5,600-square-foot home, on 0.3 acres, was the site of a Democratic fundraising dinner with President Barack Obama in October 2010. Neighbors have stated that Mayer purchased the home as an entertainment hub for her lavish parties. Her home is being decorated inside and out for her Halloween bash tomorrow.

Since the Yahoo CEO owns a home about a block away, we wonder what she’ll do with a funeral home. To motivate under-performing employees? It’s anyone’s guess.

The Source

Funeral fund

Family of bullied Florida girl seeks funeral donations.

Tricia Norman requested donations to a crowd funding campaign to help cover the $5,400 funeral bill for her daughter, Rebecca Ann Sedwick.

The family started a donation campaign to pay for her funeral.

The family of a 12-year-old Florida girl who committed suicide last month after being bullied at school and on the Internet, started a crowd-funding effort in Tampa to help pay for her funeral expenses. They need $5,400 to cover her funeral and burial costs.

Within hours, the campaign had already raised $2,495. Any funds that remain after the funeral expenses are paid will be donated to The Jaylens Challenge Foundation, an anti-bullying organization, in an effort to help others in cyber bullying situations.

"I am angry that I had to lose my daughter to bring this serious cause to light," Tricia Norman said.

Rebecca was bullied in school and online.

Rebecca Sedwick became severely depressed over repeated bullying in school and in person. Recently the bullying increased in intensity and went online through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Rebecca was threatened, harassed and even beat up on one occasion.

She was told repeatedly to kill herself by as many as 15 girls. And one day she did. In desperation, Rebecca climbed a tower at an abandoned cement plant and jumped to her death. Two girls, ages 12 and 14, have been charged with felony aggravated stalking in the case, and a Florida sheriff said previously that many more girls were involved.

Florida seems to be the stomping ground for bullying and cyber bullying and now there is a new term -- cyber-mobbing. Electronic bullying is another form of harassment that Rebecca Sedwick was forced to endure; however, it was not your average online bullying, it become a lynch-mob, what some would call cyber-mobbing.

What is cyber-mobbing? 

Cyber-cruelty that involves a group sharing the same malicious mindset or intent.

The authorities in Florida said that as many as 15 girls ganged up on 12-year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick and teased her, bombarding her with online messages such as "You should die" and "Why don't you go kill yourself."

There is a cyber-bullying law in Florida that Governor Scott recently signed. Sheriff Judd said if he determines that he has credible evidence against any child that may have been involved in this tragedy they plan on holding them criminally liable.

We didn't need another wake-up call to remind us that words kill both emotionally and literally. Cyber bullying, with the extension of cyber-mobbing, can obviously lead to a deadly ending. It did for Rebecca Sedwick. She never even reached her teens. She was just 12 years old.

We don't need any more wakeup calls.

Take cyber bullying and cyber-mobbing seriously.

Too many children are dying.

If you or someone you know needs assistance with funeral or burial expenses, let us help. We’ll start a donation page for you to assist you financially.

www.funeralfund.com

The Source

You can dance, laugh, drink and sing. It’s a Ghanaian Funeral.

At first glance, you might think that you were entering a nightclub or a wedding hall, but the people are wearing T-shirts, posters and holding CDs bearing the photo of an elegant older person. The boisterous party was a funeral for a gentleman from Ghana. Ghanaians spare no expense because “we care more about the dead than the living. Just die and you will see how many loved ones you have.”

Ghanaian funerals are parties in New York

The Irish may be known for their spirited wakes, but Ghanaians have perfected the over-the-top “party” funeral. And in Ghana as well as New York City, these parties aka funerals are the highlight of their social calendar. There’s very little mourning here.

Held nearly every weekend in church auditoriums and social halls across New York City, they are all-night affairs with open bars and loud music. While the families are raising money to cover funeral expenses; disc jockeys, photographers, videographers and bartenders make it appear more like a wedding than a funeral.

Weddings, christenings and birthdays are all celebrated heartily in Ghanaian circles, but few match the grandiose level of the funeral memorial service. When Ghanaians find themselves without weekend plans, they call their circle of fellow expatriates and ask where the funerals are. No invitation needed.

Ghanaian traditions are upheld.

In the Ghana tradition, there may or may not be a body present, or a clergyman. The religious beliefs expressed may be evangelical Christian, Roman Catholic or even secular. The deceased may have died in New York or in Ghana, a few days or a few months earlier. The funerals and memorials all have the same purpose; as festive fund-raisers for bereaved families and as midnight reunions for Ghanaians seeking to dance off the daily grind of everyday life.

Generally open to all, the memorials have become larger and more frequent in recent years as New York City’s Ghanaian population has grown and become more settled. The latest census estimates show that there are about 21,000 Ghanaians in the city, mostly in the Bronx, up from 14,000 in 2005.

Funerals are promoted like a concert.

These funeral parties are diligently prepared and promoted weeks in advance with online advertisements such as “I celebrate the life of my mother” or on lavish fliers that can be found at African restaurants and grocery stores. The fliers often bear a resemblance to theater playbills, with photos of the grieving family and friends, known as the “chief mourners, as well as credits for the Master of Ceremonies and staff.

A well-attended funeral carries great social stature and everyone wants to have the hottest funeral of the year. The parties are a direct import from Ghana, where funerals are world-renowned for their size and over the top extravagance. Caskets or coffins as they are called in Ghana reflect the lifestyle or career of the deceased. Caskets are very unusual and can resemble Mardi Gras floats; a soccer ball, a canoe or even a lion.

In Ghana, “the most significant cost you’re going to incur in your life is not going to be your wedding — it’s going to be your funeral,” said Brian Larkin, a Barnard College anthropology professor who studies West African culture.

“People get caught up in a competitive display,” he continued.

Anyone can attend a Ghanaian funeral party.

As in Ghana, funeral guests in New York need not know the deceased or even the family. But they are expected to pay respects to the bereaved, cut loose on the dance floor and donate $50 to $100 to cover funeral costs. A big party aka funeral can raise thousands of dollars.

The funerals usually begin around 10 p.m. with religious blessings, ceremonies and speeches in English and Twi, a Ghanaian language. By midnight, the dancing has started. By 2 a.m., the funeral-crashers have arrived, and the party is in full swing.

The mourners are usually dressed in traditional toga-style wraps of red and black, the colors of mourning. They will stay through the night and leave around 5 or 6:00 am.

Funerals in Ghana.

Funerals in Ghana have always been very much a social event and attended by large numbers of people. It was also an obligation to attend.

Ghana is largely a Christian country with a variety of church types, but many have underlying beliefs that come from before the introduction of Christianity. They believe that a person after death goes to the land of the dead.

“Death and money are inextricably linked in Ghana because funerals are meant to both celebrate the life of the deceased and show the success of a family, and flamboyant funerals carry more social prestige than any other ceremony”, says Marleen de Witte, an anthropologist at the University of Amsterdam. “Most Ghanaians agree that they are spending too much money on funerals, but as soon as somebody in their own family dies, the social pressure to hold an impressive funeral proves very hard to resist,” she says.

While relatives have traditionally contributed to meet funeral costs, those donations are no longer enough. Many have resorted to taking out bank loans to cover the funeral costs. There is a better way.

There is a new option to defray some of the funeral costs; Funeral Fund.

This new crowdfunding site can assist families in raising the necessary donations to cover funeral expenses. No more worries. Let the dancing begin!

www.funeralfund.com

The Source

Ohio cemetery denies SpongeBob monuments for slain Army sergeant

Army Sgt. Kimberly Walker survived two tours of duty in Iraq -- only to be killed back home, by her boyfriend. Now her family has been asked to remove her gravestone.

The family of a woman murdered on Valentine’s Day by her boyfriend say that they are grieving a second time after being told that the SpongeBob Square Pants headstones that they had specially built are ‘inappropriate’ for the Cincinnati cemetery where their daughter is buried.

The family memorialized her with her favorite character.

Sgt. Kimberly Walker, 28, was killed in a hotel room on Valentine’s Day and her boyfriend, was charged with first-degree murder. The grief was almost too much to bear, so the Walker family decided it would be fitting to erect two SpongeBob Square Pants monuments at her graveside in the historic Spring Grove Cemetery. The second monument is for her twin sister, Kara, who is in the Navy.

After receiving approval from a cemetery employee and signing a contract in March, the family decided on the design for the SpongeBob monuments and paid 10 percent of the $26,000 for the statues upfront.

The Walkers were also required by the cemetery to purchase six plots together to provide the necessary space to erect them.

Now, eight months later, her family is mourning again because they can't keep two SpongeBob Square pants memorials at her gravesite. The cemetery changed their mind.

Kimberly loved SpongeBob

To say that Kimberly Walker loved the cartoon character would be an understatement.

"Every year, my sister had a SpongeBob birthday party," Walker's twin sister Kara said. "Everything she had was SpongeBob." Even her curtains and bathroom were decorated with the cartoon’s image.

"The funeral home actually bought a SpongeBob casket pillow for her casket," her Mom Deborah Walker said.

The family decided to do a Sponge Bob themed memorial.

In honor of their slain daughter, the family decided to spend $26,000 on two SpongeBob monuments at Walker's gravesite -- one in an Army uniform for Walker, and another in a Navy uniform to honor Kara, an IT specialist for the Navy.

Each of the monuments stands more than 6 feet tall and weighs 7,000 pounds.

Before the family even ordered the SpongeBob memorials, it received approval from a cemetery representative, Deborah Walker said.

"They came and said, 'Yeah, we can go ahead and do SpongeBob.' She gave us a statement, we signed a contract, and then they started the design," the mother said.

The stone SpongeBob’s finally arrived on October 10. But less than a day later, Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati said it was going to remove the statues.

The cemetery changed their mind and ordered them removed.

Once they were made and arrived at the grave site, the cemetery changed their mind. Spring Grove Cemetery's president stated, "The family chose a design with the guidance of a Spring Grove employee who unfortunately made an error in judgment. The monument does not fit within Spring Grove Cemetery guidelines, was not approved by senior management, and cannot remain here."

After receiving negative news coverage the cemetery agreed to communicate with the family in hopes to come to an agreement and the cemetery has said they would pay for a new monument. But that is not what the Walkers were promised.

Angels, teddy bears but no SpongeBob?

Why bring added grief and stress upon a family dealing with the unthinkable? Kimberly Walker was one of our nation's heroes and she loved SpongeBob, so why can't her burial place allow her to have something she loved at her grave site?

It's just SpongeBob, a friendly cartoon character. Are we too rigid to have something whimsical like this at a burial ground? We allow angels, teddy bears, tricycles and even Hello Kitty gravestones. Instead of sadness, the tombstones would bring a smile to the people who saw them. Maybe visitors would stop and read about Kimberly and her accomplishments, take a moment to reflect on her life. We think it should stay.

The Source

Funeral fund

Why do we bury our dead six feet under?

There is no minimum safe depth at which a body must be interred. The depth of an in-ground burial can vary from 1.5 to 12 feet, sometimes even deeper. Individual jurisdictions specify their own minimum depths, but most are nowhere near six feet.

The origin of the idiom “Six feet under”.

It was during the Great Plague of London in 1665 that the origin of the idiom “six feet under” came to be. With 20 percent of London’s population succumbing to the Bubonic plague, the death rate had reached over 8,000 per week. The disease continued to sweep the country due in part to the shallow graves that bodies were buried in, or so they believed at the time.

In an effort to limit the outbreak, The Lord Mayor of London enacted a series of rules in regard to the plague, which included a mandate that all graves be buried a minimum of six feet deep.

Six feet under was not the solution.

Scientifically, this “solution” to bury bodies six feet under was ineffective in reducing the transfer of the plague. It wasn’t the dead bodies that spread the plague to the living, but rather infected fleas that would carry the plague from person to person. In fact, very few diseases are contracted from contact with dead bodies to this day.

The law fell into disuse for a time.

The law was eventually overturned in England and its colonies, but this didn’t last long. By the 19th century medical science had seen a huge increase in the use of human cadavers for teaching purposes. While most bodies used were executed criminals, the indigent or donated bodies, the increasing demand led to a shortage of corpses. This demand created a new type of criminal, the Resurrectionists; criminals who stole corpses, also known as “body snatching.”

Grave robbing became a lucrative business.

Grave robbing became a very profitable business. Some grave robbers were able to dig up four corpses per night in less than two hours to sell to the medical colleges. They could perform this task so quickly because during this period many bodies were buried only six inches below the surface. As the fear of being exhumed and displayed in an anatomical theatre for dissection haunted the aristocracy, the law reverted to the old standard of being buried six feet deep.

There is no law requiring a six feet deep grave.

Modern American burial laws vary from state to state, with many states requiring just a minimum of 18 inches of soil on top of the casket or burial vault. Given an 18-inch dirt buffer and the height of the average casket, a grave as shallow as four feet would be sufficient, but old habits die hard and six feet deep is now standard.

There are exceptions however. In low-lying wetland areas like New Orleans, or the Caribbean a grave dug six feet deep would just fill with water. In the early days in New Orleans, funeral directors would try to keep the dead safely in the ground by weighing caskets down with rocks. In spite of their efforts, the airtight caskets would sometimes come popping up out of the soil. In modern days, above-ground interment in vaults and mausoleums is becoming increasingly popular.

We hope that this bit of trivia explains the origin of the phrase “six feet under”.

The Source

Funeral fund

What is a Bespoke Funeral?

The word “bespoke” is a British term which was coined to define an item that was tailored or made to order with a high level of customization.

The original definition of the word “Bespoke” meant “to speak for something”. Today in the U.K., the term is used to denote a funeral or funeral home that promotes personalization in all respects from the casket (or coffin as they are called in Europe) to the means of burial, (often green) to the celebration of life memorial.

What is a “Bespoke” funeral home?

“Bespoke” funeral homes are popular in the U.K. They are unique in that they respect the rituals and beliefs of all faiths and cultures. Whether the decedent was Protestant, Buddhist or an atheist, each service is specific to the decedent’s final wishes. These funeral homes help families design a last celebration that is profoundly personal and precious. Using poetry, readings and music, they create an event that portrays the unique life story of the decedent.



Bespoke funerals honor the environment.

Bespoke funerals are often called “green” funerals in that they respect the environment and are eco-friendly. This includes a diverse range of environmentally-friendly coffins made with natural and biodegradable materials. They are respectful of our carbon footprint and encourage the use of garden flowers or flowers that have been grown locally. Grave stones are often marked with an engraved stone or with a tree. The families also use their own vehicles rather than limousines.

During the funeral service, personalized cotton or wool memorial blankets are commonly used to cover an environmentally-friendly wooden or bamboo “coffin”. Handmade paper notebooks are also provided for guests to write in so that a record can be kept for the family of those who attended the funeral.

Personalized coffins.

Coffins can also be decorated with sports memorabilia, college colors or in a manner that honors the decedent’s hobby or career. Families who have lost children are choosing a Hello Kitty or comic book hero themed coffin. A horse-lover was recently buried with their saddle and a picture of the horse painted on the wooden coffin. A nurse asked that her coffin be covered with band aids and signed by all attending.



Personalizing the coffin can bring a great deal of satisfaction to the family and friends and helps with the grieving process by making the funeral a celebration of a life well-lived.



Bespoke funerals use celebrants.

Bespoke funerals often use “celebrants” who deliver professional, personalized eulogies which honor and celebrate the decedent. They often close the eulogy with one last gift to guests; to remember the decedent and a life well lived. These gifts are often “green” such as a packet of seeds or a small tree to plant in the decedent’s memory.

While Bespoke funerals are not practiced in the U.S. yet, the personalization trend in funerals is becoming more popular as baby boomers create their own “send-off” or “celebration of life” funerals. Using Celebrants is growing in popularity as are custom urns and caskets. It is just a matter of time before bespoke funerals are practiced in the U.S.

The Source

Funeral fund

Ohio funeral director to aid Alzheimer’s cure by hosting a 26-hour radio marathon.

A funeral director from Cleveland, Ohio has a passion to one day put an end to Alzheimer’s disease in honor of his mother. He is supporting research for a cure in a most unusual manner; by hosting a radio marathon.

Mark Grissom, is the owner of Grissom Funeral Home, and will be taking over the airwaves, broadcasting live from WOOP-FM in Cleveland, Ohio and via the Internet from 6 a.m. Oct. 24 to 8 a.m. Oct. 25th , but not to discuss anything funeral related. Instead, he is raising monies and awareness to support the Alzheimer’s Association. He is doing this in memory of his dearly departed mother, Patty Ann Grissom, who died of Alzheimer’s on Dec. 14, 2010.

Grissom’s family was directly affected.

Grissom said that in the end stages of his mother’s illness, there were days when she could not distinguish him from his father. Her short-term memory was gone, but as is usual with the disease, she could recall vivid memories from her childhood.

“She couldn’t remember what she had for breakfast that morning, but she could tell you who her doctor was that delivered her 76 years ago” stated Grissom.

In July 2010, his mother took a turn for the worse, “and that’s when doctors told us that she had terminal Alzheimer’s and from then on, it was just a matter of trying to make her comfortable.” Grissom and his father made the difficult decision to put his mother in a nursing home because she had to have 24-hour care.

“Since her death, the Alzheimer’s Association has been really special to me, and I want to do whatever I can do to help them find a cure.” 

The idea for an Alzheimer’s marathon.

The concept of the Alzheimer’s marathon is to attract hourly sponsors for the broadcast. So far, he has 15 sponsors and guests, including one coming in to play the guitar and sing, and several restaurants providing food. Members of the local Alzheimer’s Association will also be on the air discussing the disease and treatment options.

“It’s more than about how much money we raise; we want to bring awareness to the disease.”

In honor of his mother, Grissom broadcasts for 26 hours.

Grissom is doing this marathon to honor his Mom and to educate others about the disease. “The way doctors explained it to us, the brain of Alzheimer’s patients shrink a little bit on a daily basis,” he said. “Two weeks before mom died, she contracted an infection. They gave her tons of antibiotics, but the brain couldn’t tell the antibiotics what they were supposed to do in her body. No matter how much antibiotics they gave her, it wouldn’t tell that medicine what to do to fight off that infection.”

“Everyone has a family member or next of kin who has had it or has it and deals with it,” he said. Aside from the seriousness of the reason for the 26-hour marathon, Grissom says it will be a lot of fun and a way for his funeral home to give back to the community it serves.

Some facts about Alzheimer’s disease.

• Alzheimer's is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.

• Those with Alzheimer's live an average of eight years after their symptoms become noticeable, but survival can range from four to 20 years, depending on age and other health conditions.

• Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a “catchall” for memory loss and loss of other intellectual abilities, serious enough to interfere with daily life.

• Alzheimer's disease accounts for 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases.

• In the beginning memory loss is mild, but as it progresses to late-stage, individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment.

• Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging, although the greatest known risk factor is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer's are 65 and older.

• Alzheimer's is not just an “old age” disease. 5 percent of people with the disease have early onset Alzheimer's, which often appears when someone is in their 40s or 50s.

The Source

Funeral fund

For New York’s finest, hope springs eternal.

The identity of a little girl whose shocking and senseless death haunted New York for over twenty years has finally been discovered. The real name of “Baby Hope”, who was found murdered in 1991, was Angelica Ramirez. The discovery was made after police tracked down the girl’s mother thanks to the New York police officer who never gave up hope. The case was solved on the 22nd anniversary of the day her body was originally found.

New York Police solve murder of child after 22 years.

New York police Assistant Chief Joseph Reznick visited the grave of a child known only as “Baby Hope” recently, as he's often done numerous times over the past two decades, but this time he had more answers than questions about her death. 

“Baby Hope’s” name was made public the same day a distant cousin confessed to sexually abusing the girl, then torturing, suffocating and killing her, police said. Reznick replaced the sign on her headstone at St. Raymond's Cemetery that read "the identity of this little girl is unknown" to one that spelled out her name, Anjelica Castillo.  She is indeed an angel.

The discovery was unspeakable.

For investigators, when the body of the unknown 4-year-old was discovered hiding under soda cans inside a picnic cooler and discarded along a Manhattan highway, the horror was unspeakable. Who would do this to a small child?

"Her picture, and now this confession, I'm going to have in my mind for the rest of my life," Reznick said. "Not knowing what had happened, I imagined a sort of best-case scenario. But now that I heard the real story, I know it is one of the most disturbing things."

Tiny angel murdered by a distant cousin.

Conrado Juarez, 52, was charged Saturday with murder in the girl's death, one of New York's most notorious cold cases. "This case really touched us, because she was just an innocent child, we all have kids or know them," said retired Detective Jerry Giorgio, who also investigated the case. "I know it haunted me."

“Baby Hope”, was found starved, naked and bound in a blue cooler and discovered by construction workers in 1991. She weighed just 20 pounds, less than half the weight of an average 4-year-old. The strange thing was that no one reported her missing, and detectives had no leads, until recently.

"It became just intensely frustrating," said Giorgio. "The frustration stayed with a lot of us, which makes it more relieving now."

New York Police pay for “Baby Hope’s” funeral and burial.

New York police mourned the loss of the little girl they nicknamed "Baby Hope." Officers organized a funeral for her in 1993, and hundreds of New Yorkers attended. The police paid for her funeral and gravestone at the Bronx cemetery. They visited her grave annually.

Detectives made a publicity push this summer on the 22nd anniversary of the discovery of her body, canvassing the area, plastering posters, asking for anyone with information to come forward. This time, it worked.

A tip came in that led to Juarez, a 52-year-old cousin of the girl's father. He told police he took Anjelica into an apartment and sexually assaulted her, then suffocated her with a pillow. He folded up the tiny body, bound it, wrapped it in cloth and put it inside the cooler, then told relatives they were headed to the beach, Reznick said.

New York police remember the tiny “Angel”.

For Reznick, when the gavel comes down at the end of the trial, he said he'll feel true relief.

"I remember saying at her funeral, 'This little girl was the most innocent of the innocent,'" he said. "I think that remains."

We applaud the New York Police.

As a New Yorker, we give our police credit for persistence. It’s another testament to the kind of folks who make up the NYPD; the same people who paid for Baby Hope’s funeral and gravestone. The words they inscribed at the bottom of that stone couldn’t be more fitting: “Because We Care.”

The Source

Funeral fund

Can Catholics Cremate?

The Catholic Church’s assessment of cremation has changed over the years. At the time of Jesus’ birth, cremation was practiced in the Roman Empire. Things changed when Jesus, after his death on the cross, was buried in a catacomb, within a cave.

Catholics adopted Jewish burial practices.

Early Catholics did not follow the dictates of the Roman Empire. Instead, they followed common Jewish burial practices. Catholics buried their loved ones in cemeteries, or in underground caves called catacombs. After Jesus died, his burial place was revered as a holy, sacred space. Catholics buried loved ones above and in ground, but they did not cremate. It was forbidden by Catholic law. In general cremation fell into disfavor. In fact, if we look at the Bible, when people were cremated (burned by fire) it was often as a means of penalty for their sins.

Cremation returns in the middle ages.

Cremation was used as a form of final disposition to halt contagion and manage the mass deaths throughout Europe, during the middle Ages. After, many people in Europe continued to use cremation due to poor economic conditions, lack of cemetery space, and frustration with the funerals conducted in funeral homes. The Catholic Church continued their firm stance against cremation believing burning the body was a renunciation of the Catholic credence in the holy resurrection of the body and soul. In 1917 the Code of Canon law emphatically denied a Catholic funeral for those who were cremated and banned the practice of cremation.

The Pope gives a thumbs up for Catholics to cremate.

After years of pleading by Catholics, a new law was passed permitting, but never condoning cremation for Catholics. In 1963 the Vatican officially lifted the prohibition against cremation, but did not encourage it. Finally, in 1983 a new revision of Canon Law replaced the 1917 Code. The new revision allowed cremation for the body of a deceased Catholic. The preferred means of final disposition for Catholics remains in ground or above ground burial. But now, Catholics have a choice and are not penalized by forsaking a Catholic mass or burial in a Catholic cemetery.

The Source

Funeral fund

The Circle of Life. Returning to the Holy Land is the final Pilgrimage.

It is estimated that seven percent of the world's Christians, over 150 million people make the pilgrimage to the Holy Land every year. Since the 1950s, millions of Christians have traveled to the Holy Land to visit the historic sites associated with Jesus' life and death. The Holy Land is one of the most popular tourist destinations on earth.

Why visit the Holy Land?

Why do so many people visit the Holy Land?

The Holy Land has witnessed the origins and early history of three of the world's great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

With earth that has been walked by Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Jesus, the apostles, and the Prophet Muhammad, the Holy Land has been a sought-after destination from ancient times until today. History stands still here.

· In Jerusalem, Jews still pray at the Western Wall.· Christians still visit the place where Jesus' body was laid in the tomb.
· Muslims still worship at the ancient Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque

Why Christians make the pilgrimage.

Some Christian Protestants are spiritual and therefore more place-centered, whereas Catholic pilgrims are more focused on the Bible and a "personal relationship" with Jesus. There are also those whose pilgrimage is initiated by life cycle transitions such as the death of a spouse, retirement and the birth of grandchildren. For all it’s the journey of a lifetime.

What is a pilgrimage?

Pilgrimage is both ordinary and extra-ordinary, since pilgrims leave home in a dramatic way, often for the first time. Pilgrimage to the Holy Land is the one way Christians travel with the purpose of stabilizing and preserving their faith.

Most pilgrims report that their journey to the Holy Land was a life changing experience. Some feel transformed and at peace with themselves. Still others report a renewed awareness of their spiritual roots. 

For each traveler, the experience is different.

The impact of a pilgrimage.

In the words of Martin Buber -"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."

For the Christian, a pilgrimage to the Holy Land is the ultimate spiritual journey to the birthplace of Christianity, to the place where "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us".

Attesting to its’ powerful impact on the visitor; William Johnston, author of the acclaimed handbook on the Holy Land, says:

"Here the pilgrim who is open to God's grace will be deeply enriched in the Faith, for the mind will be filled with the awesome wonder of so many sacred shrines and this will be cemented in the heart never to fade". 

Scattering in the Holy Land

If a pilgrimage to the Holy Land changes lives and is the ultimate spiritual journey for millions of people during their lifetime, returning to this sacred place after our lives are completed would be the ultimate final destination. For those choosing cremation, your final resting place can be the Holy Land. Your ashes can be placed in a private garden overlooking the Sea of Galilee. A new service called HolyLand Ash Scattering can place your ashes in the most spiritual place on earth, for all eternity.

In the Holy Land there is a private garden overlooking the Sea of Galilee, near Tabgha, the Mount of Beatitudes. It is the traditional site of Jesus' delivery of the Sermon on the Mount, probably the most famous sermon of all time. Pilgrims have been drawn to this historic place since the 4th century.

After your journey in life is complete, you can choose to return to the birthplace of civilization for all time.

You can make yours or your loved one’s final pilgrimage to the Holy Land possible. Ashes can only be scattered once. Make it memorable.

HolyLand Ash Scattering and other scattering services can perform a sacred ceremony to honor yours or your loved one’s memory. You can complete the circle of life and find a forever home for yourself or your loved one in a memorial garden in the Holy Land. 

The Source

Funeral fund

You can’t have it your way – at funeral homes in the northeast.

You’ll have to put that donut down and finish that coffee before entering a funeral home in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. These four states are stringent on not allowing food or beverages of any kind within the funeral home.

No coffee or cake for you in the northeast!

There are actually seven states with regulations directly addressing food or beverage service in funeral homes. Four states in the northeast (Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut) prohibit the practice. In New York, funeral employees cannot even bring food into the facility for lunches or snacks. These laws have been in effect since the 1960’s and no one appears to know why they were put in place.

Three states offer beverages.

Three other states (Missouri, North Dakota, and Vermont) specify more flexible conditions for food and beverage provisions. In Missouri, food sanitation laws and rules apply to food service provided at funerals, but there is an exception for coffee if all state and local laws are met.

Pennsylvania lifts ban on food & beverages in 2012.

Pennsylvania which also banned food and beverage service in funeral homes for over 30 years, lifted the ban in 2012, after funeral directors claimed that the statue violated federal constitutional due process provisions. The decision came in response to a 2008 lawsuit filed by 33 representatives of Pennsylvania's funeral directing industry against the state. 

State Senator Thomas Kennedy advocates for funeral food in Mass.

In Massachusetts, however an unlikely advocate; State Senator Thomas Kennedy has continuously filed a bill on Beacon Hill that would allow family members of the deceased to take a break during wakes at funeral homes so that they could have refreshments—something that is not currently allowed under Massachusetts state law due to potential health hazards. But every time, his argument falls flat. He has tried 12 times.

The idea to file the bill originally stemmed from a personal experience Kennedy went through when his aunt died, and a funeral director scolded his family for sitting in a room adjacent to the casket to talk and have coffee and snacks. “I feel for the mourners, the widows, and immediate family members that they can’t sit in another room and have a cup of tea and get some nourishment and then greet their friends and family and feel somewhat energized,” he says.

“At no point did I intend for my bill to be looked upon as an affront for the deceased—merely as a way to help comfort family members and mourners at an already difficult time, nor was it intended to mandate that funeral directors provide these amenities—only that the prohibition be lifted,” says Kennedy.

In his request, Kennedy said that the argument that allowing immediate family members access to refreshments—like coffee, tea, or sandwiches—poses a health risk, because it’s in the same vicinity as a decedent, is “less than persuasive.” “For decades, wakes and funeral services were conducted in the deceased’s home, where food and refreshments were served to attending mourners … Just as a host would extend hospitality of food and refreshments to visitors in their residence, that same courtesy should be extended to visitors at a funeral home,” Kennedy wrote in his letter.

Kennedy says family members at wakes and other services are often on their feet for close to 10 hours at a time, and with the funeral itself already draining their resources, a lack of refreshments can leave loved ones “tired, thirsty and hungry; an added burden in their time of sadness.”

Kennedy says that if the bill were passed, the necessary steps would be taken to ensure “complete public safety and well-being,” in terms of food being served, so that no food or beverages would be near any chemicals used at the funeral homes for embalming or other practices. “I’m very traditional and come from an old Irish family. In the old days, they had the wake at the house. You would have food and drink for all your family and friends. It was a tradition to be a host to the visitors and supporters that came,” he says.

What are the concerns?

So, the bigger question is, "If we're providing meals, will we need to be licensed and fall under the auspice of food inspectors?" he said. And the answer is yes if the funeral home cooks food and provides it to the public, according to Nicole Bucher, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

Due to the risk of food-borne illness, funeral homes will need a state license if staff there will cook on site and distribute food to funeral guests.

However, if the funeral home uses a caterer, or buys trays of food from grocery stores or other locations, it will not need a license. The caterers and other food providers would already be licensed.

What are your thoughts? Personally, I have seen Starbucks in funeral homes in the south and even full scales kitchens and banquet rooms there as well. Families seem to welcome funeral food and it reflects positively on the funeral home and their caring ways.

The Source

Funeral fund

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef buried in largest funeral in Israeli history

Over 850,000 people –10 % of Israel’s Jewish population; crowded Jerusalem streets for the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Unprecedented mobs forced the closure of the entrance to Jerusalem from the main highway and resulted in more than 200 injuries.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, was the powerful, much-loved and controversial spiritual leader of Israel’s Sephardi community. He passed away at 93 yrs. in Jerusalem early Monday afternoon after being hospitalized. Ovadia was laid to rest the same night according to Hebrew law, in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sanhedria, His funeral was declared the largest funeral in Israeli history.

Rav Ovadia Yosef was much loved.

Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, a follower of Yosef said: "Rabbi Ovadia was the father of Israel ... he gave his heart and his soul for the people of Israel ... there has never been as rabbi as great as him."

“Rav Ovadia Yosef was a spiritual leader to hundreds of thousands, if not more, a great learner [of Torah] and a wise and learned man, a father to an impressive family and an important contributor to the society and politics of the state of Israel,” US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro says in a statement released in Hebrew.

“Today in Jerusalem and all across Israel, his supporters and followers mourn him,” he added. “To them, and first and foremost to his beloved family, I send my condolences. May his memory be blessed.”

Rav Ovadia Yosef’s Timeline:

· Yosef was born in Baghdad. · His family moved to Jerusalem when he was four and he was ordained as a rabbi by the age of 20. 
· In 1947, a year before Israel's founding, Yosef went to Cairo, where he headed its rabbinical court and became Egypt's deputy chief rabbi.
· In 1950, Yosef returned to Jerusalem, to serve as a judge in religious courts that deal with family/domestic matters and divorce. 
· He served as Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi from 1973 to 1983, a post now held by his son Yitzhak.
· Yosef had been in failing health in recent months.
· Yosef, a widower, is survived by 10 of his 11 children and several dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 
· Four rabbis have been mentioned as possible successors, but with Shas outside Netanyahu's government, their political influence is likely to be limited.

Jerusalem deploys police, opens traffic hotline for mourners

The Jerusalem municipality deployed an unprecedented number of police officers, border police, traffic police and volunteers to oversee security at Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s funeral. They feared that the crowds would get out of control.

The funeral began at 6 p.m. at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in the Geula neighborhood and after, the mourners started the long walk to the Sanhedria cemetery. The streets around the cemetery were closed to all vehicles and the police informed the public not to arrive in private vehicles. The city also opened a special hotline for mourners and others who needed travel information.

Israel's ambulance service said its crews were busy treating people who fainted in synagogues and at Jerusalem's Western Wall, a Jewish holy site, after learning of Yosef's death. His death affected over a million devout followers.

Police were concerned about buildings collapsing from crowds

Police were very concerned that many of the neighborhood buildings would collapse due to the large crowds expected to attend the funeral. Hundreds of thousands of people arrived before police could control the mass gathering. Many stormed the rooftops to catch a glimpse of the casket which was carried through the streets.

The largest funeral in Israeli history.
The vast influence that Rav Ovadia Yosef had over Israel was immeasurable. Over 850,000 people attended his funeral and many more crowded on rooftops. It was estimated that over a million people came out to show their respects to their leader. This was the largest funeral in Israeli history.

The Source

Funeral fund